Hair rollers



K. REINER HAIR ROLLERS Nov. 11, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Sept. 2, 1965 Z2/Veurne .Ks/wer# .lgs/M59,

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Nov. l1, 1969 K. REINER HAIR ROLLERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 2. 1965 ffm United States Patent O ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention relates to hair rollers of the hollow cylindrical Atype about which long tressesof hair may be wound for imparting a curl to the hair. The rollers are characterized by having relatively small circumferential external grooves extending entirely around the roller in planes substantially perpendicular to the axis of the rollers, such grooves being ofV, or similar configuration whereby successive layers of hair rolled about suchrrollers cause the lowermost strand in each groove to lbe forced into the thinnest portion of the groove and mechanically held therein. Webs may be provided across and within the grooves, at spaced intervals along their length, to increase the frictional drag forces acting on the hair strands,

. This invention relates to hair rollers and more particularly to hair rollers of the hollow cylindrical type about which long tresses of hair are wound and secured for the purpose of curling the hair.

Hair rollers of the general type under discussion are used to impart a curl to tresses of hair by winding a tress about a roller, from the outer end toward the scalp, and securing the tress to the roller, as with a pin clip or clamp, to prevent Vunwindingl The tress is left wound in this manner fora length of time to imparta curl thereto. While the hair may be set dry, it is more customary to dampen it with 'water or a lotion of some type, the drying action of which assists in curling the hair. It is usually preferable that the hair be Wound tightly about the roller and it is thus important that the roller be of construction to facilitate tight winding and includeor be usable with means for retaining the tightness while it is made secure and after securement.

A second important factor is the factor of comfort, since persons wear such devices for long periods of time and often sleep with them in their hair.

Prior art devices used for performance of the hair rolling function previously discussed are subject to the disadvantages that they either make it diicult or impossible to tightly wind and/ or secure a tress of hair or in that they are uncomfortable by virtue by excessive bulk or of the inclusion of protuberances of various types which mechanically grip the hair to allow tight winding but which also stick into the scalp of the wearer (especially when worn during sleeping hours) to cause great discomfort.

' Thus, in the prior art, there are two general types, i.e. smooth hollow cylindrical rollers, and rollers having brushes, integral pin-like or tooth-like protuberances, or mechanical gripping devices incorporated therewith. The smooth type generally comprises a hollow cylindrical member having a smooth external surface and is sometimes provided with holes through the walls thereof to facilitate the drying of hair wound around the roller. Some such rollers are provided with knurled edges to be gripped by the lingers of the user. It was discovered that wet hair seemed to adhere to the surface of such rollers if they had sufficiently smooth external surfaces and the rollers were termed magnetic rollers. Actually, the name magnetic is entirely a misnomer since magnetism is not at all involved, but more important, the apparent adhesion of the hair to such surfaces is illusory. The actual effect is a y 1o claims 3,477,449 Patented Nov. ll, 1969 `ICC slippery adhesion (like for example that of oil or butter on a surface) rather than an actual frictional deterrent against movement of the hair relative to the roller. Accordingly, such rollers are disadvantageous in that the hair has a tendency to slip about the roller in winding the hair thereon and the user must carefully press the entire width of the tress against the roller throughout the procedure of winding and securing the hair on the roller.

Rollers provided with integral radial teeth or protuberances extending outwardly of the external surfaces of the rollers do provide mechanical 'gripping to overcome the disadvantages of magnetic rollers in this respect. However, such rollers suffer the disadvantages of discomfort discussed in the opening remarks of this specification and they are generally more expensive to manufacture than the simpler smooth surfaced varieties.

The present invention provides extremely simple and economical means for overcoming the disadvantages of each of the general types of prior art devices previously discussed while achieving and improving upon the advantages available in each. Thus, the present invention provides hair rollers which provide improved aflirmative mechanical gripping of the hair whereby tresses may be tightly gripped by such rollers for easy, tight winding of the hair on the rollers and such improved rollers perform this function without utilizing any protuberances extending outside the outer surface of the roller bodies.

This is accomplished by the provision of gripping means within relatively small grooves in the surface of the roller. Such grooves are in planes substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the roller so that strands of hair are forced into the grooves and are secured tightly therein, by virtue of the size and nature of the grooves as will be more thoroughly explained hereinafter.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide improved hair rollers.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved hair roller construction wherein the hair is positively Imechanically gripped by the roller in the act of rolling the hair upon the roller.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved hair roller including means to positively mechanically grip the hair and in which the roller, including such means, provides a relatively smooth outer surface whereby to obviate discomfort which would be caused by externally extending gripping protuberances.

These and other objects and the advantages attendant thereto will become evident from the following detailed specification, taken in conjunction with the attached darwings, wherein like reference numerals have been appended to like parts throughout and wherein:

FIGURE l is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of hair roller according to the present invention.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a fragment of the hair roller of FIGURE l, taken along the line 2--2 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURES 3a and 3b are perspective views illustrating the use of hair rollers such as shown in FIGURE l, the former indicating the beginning of a winding operation and the latter a tress partially wound upon the roller.

FIGUR-E 4 is a greatly enlarged fragmentary view of a portion of the surface of the roller of FIGURE 1, illustrating the nature and construction of the grooves in the surface and showing a single strand of hair reposing in a groove.

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 4 but including a plurality of strands of hair in one of the grooves to illustrate the nature of the |mechanical gripping action accomplished by the roller.

FIGURE 6, is a still further enlarged fragmentary section through a portion of the grooves shown in FIGURE 5, with a plurality of hair strands therein to further illustrate the nature of the mechanical gripping action.

FIGURE 7 is a perspective view similar to FIGURE 5, illustrating a modified embodiment of roller according to the present invention.

FIGURE 8 is an enlarged cross sectional view showing a portion of the groove construction of FIGURE 7.

In the broadest sense, the improvements achieved by the present invention involve the provision of hair rollers with frictional means for gripping hair strands, such means being integral with the outer surfaces of the hair rollers and providing combined surfaces which are relatively smooth. While many specific variant constructions are possible a few specific embodiments are illustrated herein, as examples, Without being intended to be limiting in any way.

A preferred embodiment is shown in FIGURES l to 6 of the drawings, wherein the reference numeral 10 has been utilized to designate the hair roller generally. The hair roller 10, as is common in this art, is shown to be of tubular, generally cylindrical construction, although it should be recognized that other configurations are known and could be used if desired. As is further common in the art the cylindrical outer surface of the hollow roller may be provided with drying openings 12, and with knurled gripping edges as illustrated 14 if either or both of such features are desired.

Hair rollers according to the present invention are provided with small groove means 16 in the outer surfaces thereof, as shown in the drawings. Such grooves are substantially in planes perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the roller and it should be understood that the expression substantially perpendicular groove means includes either individual parallel circular grooves or continuous tight spirals of small grooves since in either case the groove portions would be substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the roller and the mechanical effect for purposes of this invention would be the same.

The grooves 16, in the illustrated embodiment, are shown to be of V-configuration, as best seen in FIGURE 2 and in the enlarged scale fragmentary showings of FIGURES 4, 5 and 6 and such grooves perform the mechanical gripping function previously discussed, in a manner which will now be described. Referring now to FIG- URES 3a and 3b it may be seen that the hair is usually fixed upon a roller by placing the outer end of a tress upon a roller surface (see FIGURE 3a) and rolling toward the scalp (see FIGURE 3b).

In the use of the roller of the present invention FIG- URE 4 is illustrative of the condition prevailing at the beginning of the operation (FIGURE 3a) and the showing has been limited to what occurs in a single groove 16, for simplicity of illustration and discussion. During the first turn, the only forces which the hair and the surfaces of the groove can exert upon one another are axially to the strand of hair 18 and tangential to the roller surface. Accordingly, there is little or no frictional gripping. At this stage, as in prior art devices, the user must hold the hair against the roller while continuing to roll the hair upon the roller. At the second turn, however, (and during subsequent turns, of course) more hair is forced downwardly upon the rst strand, Wedging it into the narrow point of the V-groove, tightening upon it, and by virtue of this tightening, changing the basic forces from tangential (relative to the roller surface) to radial. That is, the intermost hair strands are wedged radially inwardly into the narrowest portion of the groove and into wedging contact with the groove walls. This radial force and wedging greatly increases the frictional forces exerted by the groove and the hair strands upon one another so that after two or more turns the user may pull relatively tightly on the roller without slippage occurring since the hair is at this stage mechanically held in the grooves by the frictional gripping of the inner strands. At this point the winding may be continued and completed under substantial tension, without it being necessary for the user to hold the hair tress while rolling it up. Upon completion of the winding the roller is secured in position in the usual manner, as by a pin, clip or clamp.

It should be understood from the above, that the grooves 16 of the present invention should be sufficiently small in at least part of the cross-section thereof, to grip a strand of hair 'and a sharp V-coniguration is, of course, ideal for this purpose. Other configurations could, of course, be used, it being requisite only that a portion of the cross-section of the grooves be small enough to grip and wedge hair strands within the body of the grooves and that the outer openings of the grooves be sufficiently large to admit hair thereto.

Once the second turn on a roller according to the present invention has taken place, the mechanical gripping effect is proportional to the friction between the hair and the roller surface. This effect may be augmented by roughening the inner surface of the grooves as indicated by reference numeral 22. Such roughening is effective, in cooperation with the natural roughness of the exterior of individual hair strands, in increasing the basic effectiveness of the device.

Another possible manner for increasing the frictional forces is shown in FIGURES 7 and 8. Thus, a plurality of spaced ridges or webs 24 may be formed perpendicularly disposed in the grooves, whereby the bottom hair strands are forced down over said webs by the radial forces previously discussed to still further increase frictional mechanical holding of the strands of hair.

It should further be understood that grooves 16 according to the present invention are, as shown in the drawings, of such small depth and size as not to constitute protuberances in the normal sense but rather a substantially smooth outer surface even if they were to be raised from the general external surface of the roller rather than formed within it as shown in the preferred embodiment (FIGURES 1 to 6). In this manner, the discomforts to the wearer which were attendant in prior art rollers having gripping protuberances is obviated by the present invention.

From the above it may be seen that the present invention provides improved hair roller devices wherein a mechanical gripping function is performed by a simple and economical construction which provides a maximum of permissible comfort and yet includes means for mechanically gripping the hair to assist the user in Winding hair about the roller.

Devices according to the present invention may obviously be formed of any suitable material such as metals, plastics or wood, if desired. It is also true that wide variations in size and configuration are possible within the scope of the present invention. Also, as has been previously pointed out the gripping grooves of hair rollers of the present invention may take various forms and be of various cross-sections.

What is claimed is:

1. A hair roller comprising a tubular body, groove means on the exterior surface of said tubular body, said groove means being substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said tubular body and extending completely around said body, said groove means being of a cross-sectional configuration which includes an enlarged outer entry portion to permit hair strands to enter therein and an interior portion of such diminished cross-section that hair strands can be tightly wedged therein.

2. A hair roller according to claim 1, wherein the walls forming said groove means are roughened.

3. A hair rol-ler according to claim 1 wherein said groove means are of sharp V-shaped cross-section.

4. A hair roller according to claim 1 wherein said groove means have spaced webs at the portion of diminished cross-section thereof, said webs being perpendicular to the length of the groove means whereby to increase the frictional drag on hair strands wedged into said portion of diminished cross-section.

5. A hair roller according to claim 1 wherein the tubular body has radial openings therein for purposes of drying wet hair which may be wrapped around said roller, said openings intersecting said groove means.

6. A hair roller according to clairn 1, wherein said groove means comprise a series of small grooves, parallel to one another and each being in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the tubular body.

7. A hair roller comprising a cylindrical tubular body, a plurality of small grooves arranged side by side on the exterior surface of said tubular body, each of said grooves extending completely around said body and Abeing parallel to the other grooves and each being in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of the tubular body, each of said grooves being formed of walls angularly related to one another to form a sharp V-shaped crosssection whereby strands of hair may be forced downwardly into the inner narrow portion of said V-shaped cross-sections to be tightly frictionally gripped by said walls.

8. A hair roller according to claim 7, wherein said walls are roughened to increase the coefficient of friction thereof.

9. A hair roller according to claim 7, further characterized in that the tubular body has openings therein, said openings being intersected by said grooves.

10. A hair roller according to claim 7 further characterized in that at least one of said grooves is provided with webs spaced from one another along the length of the grooves containing such webs, said webs being formed in the inner narrow portion only of said grooves, whereby to increase the frictional drag forces applied to hair strands forced into the said inner narrow portions while permitting entry of hair into the said grooves.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,732,845 1/ 1956 Winkler.

2,446,722 8/ 1948 Rust 132--40 2,558,305 6/1951 Marvin.

3,209,766 10/ 1965 Daunat 132--40 3,297,042 1/ 1967 Hutcheon 132-40 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,318,776 1/ 1963 France.

F. BARRY SHAY, Primary Examiner G. E. MCNEILL, Assistant Examiner 

